German Of The Day: Bußgeld

July 18, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Autism, Climate Change, Demonstrations, Education, Fines, Fridays for Future, German, Germans, Germany, Greta Thunberg, Language, Protests, Schools, Students Leave a comment

No, that doesn’t mean bus money. It means fine or penalty.

And that’s what the parents of the kids who have been taking part in Joan of Arc’s, I mean, Greta Thunberg’s wackedelic Fridays for Future (FFF) demonstrations will now have to be paying. At least here in Germany.

German school authorities are starting to get tired of all the truancy going on or something and have begun handing out fines starting at 88.50 euros a pop. Jeepers. That might get FFF-freakin’ expensive before too long, folks.

Eltern von Klimaschutzdemonstranten müssen Bußgeld bezahlen – Seit Monaten demonstriert Fridays for Future für besseren Klimaschutz. Weil das auch während der Schulzeit geschieht, wird in Mannheim das Ordnungsamt aktiv.

German Of The Day: Mundtot Machen

July 12, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Censorship, Consensus, Free speech, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Groupthink, Islam, Language, Muslims, Political correctness, Political Parties, Social Democracy, SPD Leave a comment

That means to make “mouth-dead,” as in to silence someone.

“Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking.”

On its third try, Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) will be able to kick controversial anti-Islam author Thilo Sarrazinfrom its ranks, an arbitration court ruled on Thursday. The former Berlin senator intends to appeal the ruling.ConCo

“We will try to take the case to all stages of the state and the federal arbitration court of the SPD and, beyond that, if necessary, all the ordinary civil instances of the district court of Berlin, the Court of Appeals and Federal Supreme Court, then the Federal Constitutional Court,” defense lawyer Andreas Köhler said. “In the meantime Dr. Sarrazin will continue to be an astute and attentive member of the SPD.”

Who are the Brain Police?

German Of The Day: Hinterzimmer

July 11, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy Tags: Elections, EU, European elections, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Non-elected Officials, Technocrats, Ursula von der Leyen Leave a comment

That means backroom.

You know, like backroom deals? Like the way EU technocrats decide who runs the show despite what the electorate says? Why even hold European elections in the first place?

Von der Leyen nomination: Germans criticise ‘backroom deal’ – “What was the point of all that?” German critics are asking, after the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s defence minister, for the top EU job of Commission president.

There were TV debates. There were election rallies. Germany’s streets were plastered with posters showing the faces of candidates for the EU’s top jobs.

But Mrs von der Leyen’s face did not appear on any posters. Instead her nomination was suddenly announced after weeks of difficult, behind-the-scenes wrangling between EU leaders.

This is European, I mean EU democracy in action, people.

German Of The Day: Entlassungswelle

July 7, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Deutsche Bank, Employees, Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Jobs, Language, Layoffs, Work Leave a comment

That means wave of layoffs.

Although the plural form would be more accurate these days. It’s the latest big thing in Germany. Everybody’s doing it – or in the process of planning it (see German automobile industry).

Take the Deutsche Bank, for instance. Give me 18,000 employees to go. The times they are a changin’.

Up to 20,000 jobs could be axed at Deutsche Bank in a radical reorganisation of Germany’s biggest bank.

The investment bank is expected to be particularly hard hit, with many of the cuts set to affect London and New York.

“I can assure you: we’re prepared to make tough cutbacks.”

German Of The Day: Heimlicher Wortbruch

June 30, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Defense, Defense Spending, German, Germans, Germany, Language, NATO Leave a comment

That means secret breach of promise.

Mr Trump accused Berlin of falling short of its NATO commitments during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House yesterday (June 12). The US President demanded that they increase their defence spending from one percent to two percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

NATO set a target for every member to spend two percent of GDP on defence by 2024.

But Berlin has only pledged to increase spending to 1.5 percent by that date.

Deutschlands heimlicher Wortbruch gegenüber der Nato.

German Of The Day: Eigentum

June 20, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Bans, Dispossession, Housing, Language, Private Property, Property, Real Estate, Rents, Socialism Leave a comment

That means property. But property doesn’t mean much in Germany anymore. At least not in Berlin under its current “red-red-green” city government.

Another word you might be interested in here is Enteignung.

German officials facing protests and endless complaints about threats to affordable housing in the nation’s capital have decided the solution may be a five-year ban on rent increases and fines as high as $550,000 for violators.

Officials in Berlin, a city of about 3.7 million residents long known for its affordable housing options, announced this week that they plan to temporarily freeze the rents charged on publicly and privately owned apartments in a bid to halt runaway gentrification.

“It will scare away investors who will find alternative markets with less regulation. It’s a socialist and populist attack on the free market and it’s not going to lead to a single new apartment being built.”

German Of The Day: Richtig Angepisst

June 17, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Berlin Airlift, Bureaucracy, Candy Bombers, German, Germans, Germany, Greens, History, Language, Leftists, Social Democrats, Socialists, The Left Party Leave a comment

That means really pissed off. A lot of Berliners and candy bomber pilots certainly are.

Go Berlin! I mean, go Berlin’s SPD – Green – Left Party government!

About twenty so-called candy bombers flew over Berlin yesterday in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. They had to. The city of Berlin refused to permit the pilots of these historic c-47 (DC-3) aircraft to either land or throw down candy from above.

That’s the spirit or something. I think this guy summed it up nicely: Candy bombers supplied West Berlin in 1948-1949. The socialists tried starving Berlin back then. Today, the socialists run the government in Berlin and refuse to allow the candy bombers transit over restricted areas and won’t even allow these heroes to land. A disgrace for Germany.

Ein Sprecher des Berliner Bürgermeisters äußerte sich gegenüber der “Bild”-Zeitung zu den Vorwürfen: Man habe trotz verlängerter Fristen nicht alle nötigen Unterlagen erhalten.

German Of The Day: Andere Länder Andere Sitten

May 30, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: Beer, Customs, Father's Day, German, Germans, Germany, Holidays, Language, Vatertag Leave a comment

That means other countries other customs.

Finally, a holiday for the rest of us.

German Oddity 391. Only in Germany is Vatertag or Father’s Day commemorated by hordes of oddly dressed men pulling little wooden wagons overloaded with beer and snaps through wooded areas (or right through the middle of your town) roaring and swearing and pissing all over the place until they vomit on themselves and pass out but not before having called their wives to pick them up and drag them back home again.

German Of The Day: Dringliche Angelegenheiten

May 7, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: Diplomacy, German, Germans, Germany, Iran, Language, Mike Pompeo Leave a comment

That means pressing issues.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo abruptly canceled a scheduled trip to Germany where he was planning to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel “due to pressing issues,” the State Department said early Tuesday.

No specific reason was given for the cancellation. The press pool traveling with Pompeo has not been told where they are going next, and have been warned they may not be able to report from the country they are going to until after they leave…

The sudden schedule change comes two days after the Pentagon deployed a carrier and a bomber task force to the Middle East in order to send a message to Iran, which the Trump administration has recently been putting pressure on. Pompeo said Sunday night that the deployments have been in the works for “a little while” and that the US will “hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests.”

US-Präsident Trump verhindert den Berlin-Besuch seines Außenministers – wegen “dringlicher Angelegenheiten”.

German Of The Day: Handelskrieg

April 26, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Automobiles, Donald Trump, EU, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Imports, Language, Negotiations, Recession, Tariffs, Trade Leave a comment

That means trade war.

A trade war between the United States and Europe is coming and the fallout could tip Germany into recession, according to analysts at German lender Commerzbank…

Official German statistics supplemented by the bank’s own research show that in 2018, the United States was the top export destination for German cars, accounting for about 12% of the total with a value of 27 billion euros of parts or finished vehicles.

The bank estimated that a Trump-ordered tariff increase of 25 percentage points on EU auto imports would slash that figure for Germany down to around 14 billion euros per annum.

When factoring in how much of that export figure is actual German “added value,” the bank estimated that total economic output for the country could fall by around 0.25 percentage points.

“All the more dangerous in a situation where the German economy is only just managing to avoid a recession,” it read.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

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